EPA Defends Utility NSPS Emissions Testing Mandate From Industry Suit

摘要

EPA in a new legal filing is broadly rejecting a utility industry lawsuit claiming flaws in the agency's new source performance standard (NSPS) to reduce conventional pollutants from new and existing power plants, with the agency saying it has Clean Air Act authority for its emissions testing requirements and several other provisions. In the suit, Railroad Commission of Texas, et al., v. EPA, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, industry is seeking broader regulatory exemptions and fewer testing requirements for particulate matter (PM) than EPA has required, in one of several related challenges to the agency's suite of regulations governing the utility sector. The case challenges two final NSPS rules, issued in January 2009 and February 2012.